The nature of concerns haunting election candidates has dramatically changed over the last few years. The Election Commission of India’s (ECI’s) loud assertions on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) being tamper-proof have failed to assuage suspicions about technical interventions altering political reality. These suspicions have only deepened after the unexpected outcome of the Haryana assembly election.
A simple query about the prevailing ground reality in election-bound Maharashtra evoked this reaction from a sitting Congress MLA who is preparing to contest again, “We won’t allow a repeat of what happened in Haryana. All the probable candidates of the Congress, NCP and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena have been asked to keep exceptional vigil on EVMs. I have formed a team of 20-25 educated, tech-savvy young people to look after the EVM aspect of the election in my constituency. A legal team is assisting them. We have already checked the EVMs that came in this constituency. Some faulty machines were rejected by us. The technical team has done a lot of research and we are prepared to note down the number of every machine okayed by us and match them on the day of polling. There are strict instructions to take form 17C seriously and the battery status of every machine will be photographed after the completion of polling. We will check the battery status of every machine before counting and match them with our records.”
Asked about the discrepancies they noticed, this leader said, “While some EVMs showed wrong results during mock polls, some were even doing the counting wrong. We will get to check the machines again before polling day when the candidates are announced and symbols are uploaded. The fear is now not only manipulation of EVMs but changing the machines after polling. We are very careful this time.”
But what about politics? He responded with astonishing confidence, “Politics [and the public] favours us and is unbelievably hostile to the BJP. Our only concern is EVM. People are itching to kick the BJP out. It’s like revenge time; revenge against the BJP’s machinations to split parties, steal MLAs and surreptitiously form a rag-tag coalition. Devendra Fadnavis, who is the BJP’s supreme leader, has changed his name because he knows that the identity developed over the last five years creates aversion among the people. He now calls himself ‘Deva Bhau’, in a desperate bid to escape from reality. Fadnavis is identified with ugly machinations. Also, he knows his Brahmin identity is a problem because the people are agitated about the statue of Shivaji falling. So the posters now show him as ‘Deva Bhau’ for the first time in his career. What’s worse, Ajit Pawar has been hollowed out and the Eknath Shinde group is facing people’s wrath for the betrayal.”
This Congress leader’s claim of political advantages may be disputable, but the fact that a candidate’s core concern in an election is technical is a sad commentary on the state of elections in India. Even other senior leaders are worried about this. Despite being a veteran leader, who has won several elections, he said, “I never thought I [would] face technical challenges in what is going to be my last election. But even my voters tell me to be careful about EVMs.”
This cloud of suspicion has hovered over the electoral horizon for too long to be ignored. While there is demonstrable evidence of the ECI’s biases towards the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in every election, what gave credence to the suspicion is the Modi Government’s shocking decision to overturn the Supreme Court verdict on the process of selecting Election Commissioners (ECs).
Also read: BJP May Have Won in Haryana But the State’s Issues Persist
While there was an urgent need to address the concerns about the sanctity of the electoral process, the Modi Government used the parliament to undermine the Supreme Court ruling on fair and transparent selection of ECs. It is inexplicable why the selection panel, which was supposed to include the prime minister, the leader of opposition (LoP) and the chief justice of India (CJI), was not acceptable to the ruling party. They struck off the CJI, replacing the judge with a fellow Cabinet colleague of the prime minister, diluting fairness and establishing a decisive say of the government. Was this sinister move driven by the desire to control the ECI? Can there be a single legitimate reason in favour of the decision to replace the CJI with a Cabinet minister?
The composition of the selection panel alone is not a panacea for the ills afflicting the ECI. But it does have a symbolic value and throws some light on the Union government’s intent. The ECI merrily delinked elections in Maharashtra and Haryana when the two states traditionally went to polls together. This separation by a few days comes at a time when the Modi government is thrusting upon the nation the bizarre concept of one-nation-one-election. The ECI refuses to meaningfully engage with the opposition parties on their suspicions about the EVM. The commission ignores questions about mysterious spurt in voting percentage, days after the completion of the polling process, even as the jump has been substantial, as high as 12% in some states. When civil society members and activists express grave concerns about the sanctity of the electoral process, the Chief Election Commissioner responds either with a veiled threat, contemptuous rejection or a third-rate couplet. Does our Constitution envisage the role of the ECs as government agents? Isn’t it incumbent upon the commission to address every concern with objectivity and sincerity? Isn’t one violation anywhere bad enough to vitiate the entire electoral process?
Candidates in a healthy democracy should debate the public’s real concerns in elections. They should agitate over issues like unemployment, economic inequality, corruption and threats to democratic culture in the country. They should rely on battle-hardened political workers, not on tech-savvy, apolitical boys and girls, to ensure their victory. The focus should be on articulating their points before the people, not photographing EVM batteries. They should discuss what happened in the last five years instead of clear violations like release of doles to farmers and women on the polling day. A fair ECI will definitely ensure a level-playing field instead of allowing ministers to polarise the voters on caste, religious and communal lines. Can there be a couplet on this obsolete concept – first or third rate?
Sanjay K. Jha is a political commentator.
